Convicted Killers Appeal Murder Verdict Over Alleged Faulty Identification

Jessie Mejia and Darwin Prado convicted murderers, appeared before the Court earlier today to appeal their murder conviction. At issue is the improper identification of the men. Reports are that in 2018, both Marlon Spain, 25, and Casey Lozano, 24, of Ladyville were hanging out with a group of friends, at Spain’s family yard on Marage Road in Ladyville when two masked gunmen emerged from the bushes and opened fire, killing both Lozano and Spain. Johan Grey and Sidney Humes were injured in the crossfire. Attorney Orson Elrignton, representing Jessie Mejia, spoke on the issue concerning a verified and solid identification of the accused. 

Orson Elrington, Attorney: “What our grounds of appeal were were essentially that the judgment was unreasonable considering that it did not properly apply, we believe the principles in Turnbull which says that you know you have to be safe when you’re identifying persons in criminal proceeding you have to be absolutely safe that you have the right person because even when you know somebody you can mistake somebody for somebody else. All of us have experienced we’re like bwai I see you somewhere so that is essentially the principle expounded in that and we also felt that the judge did not accurately or fully satisfy all of the elements that were required to convict them of murder and so those were essentially the grounds that we relied on for the appeal today.”

Both Mejia and Prado, are charged with two counts of murder for the shooting deaths of Spain and Lozano. They are also jointly charged with two counts each of use of deadly means of harm and grievous harm for the injuries that Jonah Gray, 22, and Sidney Humes, 47, suffered in the same shooting.